Are We Very Good People?
by TheCivilState
Summary: Finn has always been the fatherly type.  Violet was always his little girl.  He didn't mean to make her forget him.


_I'm not yours and you're not mine_

"Finn, catch me!" He turned in time to catch Violet as she jumped from the uppermost branches of the tree she had climbed. She giggled in his arms, pale eyes lit up from the excitement of it all. Her childish arms wrapped tightly about his neck, all gangly limbs and knobby elbows. But there, just slightly visible in the curve of her mouth and the hemline of her gown was the evidence that she would not be a child for much longer.

"Little one," he chided, "You should not act so rashly. How did you know I would catch you?" She giggled and jumped from his arms, landing on the ground with wobbly feet and her braids in disarray. Her cousin, Rose, would no doubt scold her for it later.

"Because," she said with the confidence of a child, "You love me. And people do not let the ones they love fall." He watched her rush away from him, gleefully shouting to the sky and the birds and wishing upon rays of sunlight that she could join the birds and _fly, fly far away. _He never told her he often wished the same.

_I have to avoid you_ _But you come to me at night_

Kol and Elijah had somehow managed to turn their dreams off and what lurked in Niklaus' mind could hardly be considered dreams. Nightmares was a more appropriate term. Finn often considered asking his brothers for assistance, but was always unable to ask that simple question: _How do I stop dreaming about Aria?_

They were always painful dreams. He never dreamt of watching her from the forest as she dutifully raised a child not her own and maintained a house that would later crumble after she was gone. His dreams were not that kind. Instead, he dreamt of her golden hair falling over her shoulders as she kissed him the morning. He dreamt of their children with his eyes and her smile. He dreamt of their life. A life that never would exist save for in his dreams.

That is why he never learned how to turn his dreaming off.

_But somehow you make me feel_ _Just like I know you_ _Better than you do_

"Iolanthe?" he said in surprise, for the woman standing before him was not the child that had left with Rose some years earlier. What had once been sharped edges was now softened curves attached to dreamy eyes that looked at the world differently than they once had. Her gown was of the same fashion as Rebekah's and her hair was neatly arranged to show off the milky flesh of her neck.

"Violet," she corrected him, smiling in a way that was no longer sweet and innocent, but the practiced smirk of a seductress. He wanted to rip out Rose's heart for allowing such corruption to occur.

"You have grown, little one," he said politely, keeping his eyes fixated on her face instead of roving her body appreciatively the way Klaus and Kol were. She rested a hand on his arm and fluttered her lashes.

"Not very little, I hope." His brothers sniggered as he stiffened, but he recovered and offered her his arm to escort her inside the estate they were residing at. As he passed his brothers, he whispered a threat for their ears alone.

"Touch her and I will rip out your heart." For someone who had never murdered, this was quite the statement.

_That's the trick you play on me_

"Do you not love me?" Violet asked one evening as she stood just inside his doorway. The others were gone, something about a carnival. Violet had desired to attend, but Rose insisted she stay indoors for reasons she would not elaborate on, but Finn understood, which is why he remained indoors as well. To think he was a vampire who could not tolerate bloodshed.

"Why such a question?" he responded, rising from his chair to return a scroll to its proper place. Violet stepped further into his room until she was but a few feet from him.

"You do not touch me," she said, "Do you not find me desirable? I thought you would enjoy me. Kol and Niklaus seem to." He bit back a growl at her statement, having been made aware by his sister just how much enjoyment Kol and Klaus took from Violet. Not that they allowed her to remember any of it.

"There are many types of love, little one," he tried to reason, but reason would not win with Violet.

"Do not call me that! I am not a child anymore!" To punctuate her statement, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him with an experience his brothers had contributed to. He pulled her arms around and shoved her backwards, but he miscalculated and heard the sickening crack as her head collided with the wall and her skull shattered. Her eyes went wide and unseeing as she stumbled forward. He caught her and cradled her in his arms, ripping the veins in his wrist to pour his blood into her mouth. She could not die; she had to live.

"Drink, Violet," he pleaded, "Please, drink." Her eyes fluttered and her lips lazily moved against his wrist. Finn sighed in release and allowed her to drink until her wound began to heal and her heartbeat steadier. She would live, of that he was certain.

"I wish you would forget me," he said and watched as her pupils dilated briefly before her eyes fell shut. That was the night Finn learned how to compel.

_Save my pride_ _See me now_

"Who is that man, in the corner?" Rose turned to see where her cousin was looking and found Finn watching them carefully.

"That is Kol and Niklaus' elder brother," she said, "Finn." Violet tilted her head and regarded him carefully before giving him a polite smile. He bowed his head and disappeared inside.

"Is he very good?" she asked and Rose patted the younger girl's hand.

"The best of them."

_we're the same _

Two weeks later, when Klaus mentioned turning Violet into a vampire, Finn protested and tried to rip out his brother's heart.

He spent the next nine hundred years dreaming about golden hair and bright eyes. And when he didn't dream of Aria, he dreamt of Violet. And in his dreams, she had never grown up.

**a/n: **I own Violet. That's been established. Fave, flame, faint.

_[song fic inspired by "Fallout" by Sofi Bonde]_

_oxox._


End file.
